27 juin 2014
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ , info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
Justin Piché, « A Contradictory and Finishing State », Champ pénal/Penal field, ID : 10.4000/champpenal.8797
Through an analysis of published and unpublished documents authored by or submitted to penal system functionaries, this paper shows how over 6,300 new prisoner beds in the process of coming online in Canada’s provinces and territories are mostly being built to address longstanding growth in the number and proportion of remanded prisoners. The role played by bureaucratic actors and appointed advisors who advanced proposals on how elected officials could address facility crowding and the needs of a so-called changing prisoner profile in a context of risk aversion – including tabling recommendations to construct new prison spaces – is documented. In so doing, it is shown how humanitarian and rehabilitative concerns operate alongside other logics of incarceration that are often said to be more punitive, contributing to the perpetuation of current levels of imprisonment and seeding the ground for future carceral growth. In light of these findings, this paper concludes with a discussion on how recent developments in the Canadian context raise questions about previous scholarly explanations of prison capacity expansion and proposes paths for future research on this topic.